For the sake of artistic expression
by Dicap3o
Summary: Determined to improve his skills, Lovino Vargas signs up for an art class to have a chance at competing with his younger brother. Much to his horror, he realises the first lesson is nude figure drawing, and the male Spanish model has caught his interest. Spamano, human AU, some swearing.
1. Part 1

_**Part 1**_

Shaky hands gripped tightly onto the leather strap of his satchel bag, sweaty palms and white knuckles. Lovino Vargas, a flustered mess, was giving himself a much-needed pep talk outside the door; I say it was much-needed for various reasons. One was because he hadn't had time to comb through his locks in the rush of getting there, so his brunette hair was full of wispy kinks, untouched by the wonders of a plastic comb and a tub of hair gel. Secondly, he wasn't even sure if he even could do this. Just so it was out in the open, Lovino_ knew_ he wasn't the greatest at art, no use pointing it out to someone who is reminded of it every day. It was clear to him that he didn't possess the skill of his younger brother. But oh, he so wanted to.

Watching his brother paint was mesmerising, although he wouldn't like to admit that out loud. What he wouldn't give to be able to hold a paintbrush so delicately, and mix those paints on the palette in such a way that they could produce such gorgeous colours. And when his brother put the paintbrush to canvas, the precise brushstrokes would finally build up to reveal an intricate and clean picture. Like a photograph. It must feel like such an accomplishment…But that wasn't a feeling Lovino was all that used to.

So in a surge of motivation, he had finally decided to stop feeling sorry for himself and actually try and get better at the thing he loved so much, art. So there he was, standing outside the door to a studio where a class was being held by none other than his brother himself. People were surely going to judge him for his shit art skills weren't they? There would be all sorts of modern day Picassos and Da Vinci's in there, smug smiles plastered on their faces no doubt. It was made even worse by the fact his dim-witted brother just had to be the gifted one teaching the class. But, his will to get better was a lot stronger than his pessimism, so he opened the door and took the first step inside.

He didn't realise now, but he would surely have hated himself if he had walked away. Luck had never been on this man's side, but that one day, there was enough to compensate for all those other times it hadn't been.

* * *

_**Hey guys, so this is my first attempt at writing fanfiction and of course I had to base it around my favourite pairing Spamano. Feedback is greatly appreciated, although I did this mainly for fun and because I couldn't get the idea out of my head. This part was kind of like an introduction. I hope you enjoy!**_


	2. Part 2

**_TW: Nudity is mentioned but is not explicitly described. Just thought I'd say just in case!_**

* * *

**_Part 2_**

The studio was a large square room, brightly lit by the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. It was so…White, and also rather plain, which made it look empty. Well, in fact it was pretty empty, there were only a few people there including his brother. They were sitting on stools arranged in a circle, each with its own easel. It was making Lovino want to gag, reminding him of nursery when they used to do circle-time.

"Brother, I'm so glad you came!" a voice chirped happily at Lovino's presence, belonging of course to Feliciano.

"Well, where is everyone then? I thought your class was supposed to be popular." He couldn't say he was all too happy about having his brother practically announce his arrival because now all the heads were turned his direction. They looked decent enough, but the wide eyed expressions on their faces made their surprise far too obvious. The contrast between the two Italian brothers was almost comical after all.

"Oh no, silly! Your pretty early, we haven't even started yet." Feli said with a broad smile as he made a gesture with his hand.

"…What?" A glance at the shiny watch on his wrist made him quickly realise he must have gotten the time wrong. Oh well that was fucking fantastic, now he had no excuse to look so tardy and dishevelled. "Great." He grumbled and trudged over to an empty stool away from the others. This wasn't a very good start.

He began busying himself with getting his equipment out, occasionally glancing at Feli from the other end of the circle who was wearing those overalls with all the paint stains on and must have rolled his sleeves up about 20 times since the shirt was so baggy. Even looking like that he still appeared to be flirting with a pretty blonde woman, and it was working. Lovino felt in no mood to talk to her equally pretty friend however, so he just glared jealously in his brother's direction. Now jealousy, _that_ was feeling Lovino was used to.

Soon enough more people arrived, until eventually every stool was occupied, causing Feli to stand up and quiet the gentle buzz of conversation. "Ciao class, I think you'll enjoy yourselves today, since we are doing something a little more exciting!" Lovino rolled his eyes, could he just get on with it instead of acting all sunshine and rainbows?

"We are going to be doing some figure drawing, and we have a male model-" it was at that moment that Feli got cut off, as the door opened and in walked the very model that was being spoken of.

"Oh and here he is" Feli continued on whilst he gave the man a small wave.

"Hola! Happy to be here." Antonio Carriedo, a Spaniard. Lovino looked him over with a creased brow, taking in every feature, tan skin, soft curls, striking green eyes and must have still been in his twenties. Of course he instantly disliked him.

It wasn't for the way he looked no; it was simply because he was an idiot. That happy-go-lucky attitude, that warm expression, that confident stance, yes Lovino knew an idiot when he saw one. And his first impression of Antonio, was certainly going to be a lasting one.

After this 'Antonio Carriedo' began speaking some more (by which point Lovino had tuned out, he didn't have time for idiots) he demonstrated how much he oozed charisma. Heck, every time the guy spoke in that Spanish accent of his, everyone seemed to be hanging onto his every word, except one person. It was just another reason for Lovino to become increasingly irritated, as everyone was talking and laughing around him.

"Tch." Was Lovino's impulse response; why choose this jerk as the model? Could Feliciano have picked someone less chatty and a bit more mysterious looking? No this was Feliciano, and Antonio was probably another one of his many friends doing a favour.

More pointless conversation seemed to pass, until Lovino felt like he could literally fall asleep then and there. Just when he was about to drift off, a sight beheld him that seemed to snap him awake. The Spaniard was just…Taking his clothes off in the middle of the circle. Wait, he was taking his clothes off, all of them! A deep scarlet coloured his cheeks as he frantically looked around at the others, who seemed completely normal. What the hell was going on here?!

"What are you-" escaped his lips in a barely comprehensible squeak, which nobody heard apparently. His eyes must have looked like saucepans, so he had to instantly avert them as he broke out into a hot sweat.

"10 minute poses right?" Antonio said cheerfully and way too casually. As if he wasn't just standing there with no clothes on. Lovino could feel his heart beating out his chest, for his own safety he hoped to the almighty God he wouldn't have a heart attack at 20 years old.

"Si! You only have 10 minutes for each pose using charcoal and pencil. Just um…Try your best, it's okay if your struggling, male anatomy is hard after all right? Aha now let's make some art ve~" Feliciano spoke with equal normality.

_'This is not what I expected-'_

* * *

Swallowing the lump in his throat Lovino remembered that this was an art class, and figure drawing just so happened to be the topic for today. This was unfortunate for him though because he was having a difficult time regaining composure. Taking a moment to rub his brow and inhale/exhale through his nose, he finally looked back at Antonio who was doing some sort of crouching pose.

_'Jesus Lovino calm the fuck down geez.'_

Charcoal gripped firmly in hand, the Italian began sketching the pose as best as he could with messy and shaky lines. It wasn't in the man to draw the…"Details" of the model, he just couldn't do it, he ended up spending too long drawing the face, which defeated the point of figure drawing. The silence was torture; nobody said a word, all were too engrossed in ogling the model and trying to depict his pose on paper. To everybody else it was fine, but to Lovino it was so awkward and tense, he hated it. Before he had even begun to properly build up the drawing, the bastard had changed pose. Surely that was less than 10 minutes?

_'I wasn't finished yet you jerk.'_

As the time passed, the poses got considerably harder which only caused Lovino to get pent up with frustration, no longer flustered with embarrassment, but annoyance instead. It was hard keeping up with this. He squinted at the paper numerous times, tilted his head, leaned back but it looked ridiculous from all angles. Whenever he got the drawing to look recognisable and actually started to get a feel for it, the goddamn model would change his pose again forcing him to start again. There the idiot went twisting into some other position with a sunny expression, as if he were mocking him.

_'Oh my fucking god, stay still!'_

Fighting the urge to scream and rip all the pages out his goddamn art pad, he cursed Carriedo under his breath amongst other disgruntled noises. Eventually though Lovino just smacked his charcoal down; he'd had enough and decided he couldn't do it.

A discreet side-glance at his neighbours art pad only made him feel ten times worse, because it looked fucking amazing. Running his fingers through his hair he sighed heavily into a slumping position on the stool.

_'That stupid Antonio Carriedo bastard, this was his fault for doing such difficult poses in a short space of time.'_

He glared (well it was more like angry squinting) at the perpetrator as he grinded his teeth, not expecting him to notice. However, he was totally caught off guard when Antonio made eye contact with him. Instead of retaliating with a grimace as most often did in response to Lovinos rudeness, he smiled.

It was the stupidest smile Lovino had ever seen, flashing his pearly white teeth which contrasted so noticeably against the tanned skin. But it was so warm and genuine, not fake or even mocking like usual, it made Lovinos heart skip a beat again, racing at the same intensity as before. The man's green eyes seemed to bore into Lovinos hazel ones with a look of genuine intrigue, whereas the Italian just stared back dumbfounded for a few seconds. That was before quickly realising he was staring, to which he just scowled and scoffed to turn his nose away.

A hand pressed over his chest to control the racing heart, he was paranoid people could definitely hear it in the silence. He hid his face behind the art pad, and a good thing it was there too, his face was so red he was sure he looked ridiculous. It was so weird. He'd never had such a reaction to some idiot's dumb smile before, what with the sickening empty sensation in his stomach that made him want to shiver.

"That stupid bastard." He whispered at the floor.

* * *

_**And thats my first chapter done. I realise for now I'm focusing on mainly Lovino's POV, but I will be writing from Antonio's perspective in later chapters. I aim to improve and progress the story as I go on so it will get better, and hopefully I can flesh out the characters more. I apologise if they're OOC! **_


	3. Part 3

**Note: Anri is Belgium in this story, since she has no official human name.**

* * *

Surely the class was over by now. Time had come to an agonising drag after Lovino's silent "encounter". Or maybe it was just the sheer boredom of having nothing to do, since he couldn't muster up the courage or motivation to start drawing again. It would mean having to look back at Antonio again_._ God knows how much longer he could survive this gruelling ordeal. Everyone seemed to be draining his energy with their productivity and actual talent; how depressing. And was it only Lovino that was sensing some kind of invisible tension now between himself and that Antonio character? No that was stupid, it was just awkward eye contact, happens to everyone, nothing to get so worked up over. Still, he found himself replaying the moment in his head.

_'I just want to get out of here!'_

He buried his face in his hands exasperatedly, still shielded from the Spaniards view by the easel.

"Excuse me hun, are you alright?" a voice as sweet as honey whispered, interrupting his thoughts and sending him crashing back to reality. Lovino looked up to the source of the voice, a young woman sitting on the stool beside him. She had a kind face, with rose tinted cheeks and a playful glint in her eyes: very pretty.

"Oh, me? I'm just fine bella." Lovino answered smoothly, a charming smile reserved for lovely ladies such as her.

"It's just you seemed quite tense, and I heard you whisper something earlier." Her peach lips curling upwards to return the smile "I'm Anri by the way."

"Lovino."

"I noticed you stopped drawing, I'm bored too. Don't worry I think it's the last 10 minutes now, then the lesson is finished for today."

From that point on some general chit-chat ensued between them, in hushed voices so as not to disturb the silence too much. Anri was nice to talk to, she knew how to keep a conversation flowing, and wasn't annoying or pushy, but very sweet and attentive. He was tempted to try and pick her up, but the diamond that adorned her ring finger steered him away from that idea. It wasn't like he minded though; just the conversation alone was a relief from the intensity of the class. At all the right timings she would laugh warmly, stifling her mouth with a hand so she wasn't too loud.

It made a pleasant change from those awkward moments, where Lovino would make a joke, but the person either forced a fake laugh or it went straight over their heads. Then when he outright didn't laugh at their pathetic jokes in return, they had the audacity to say he had no sense of humour. Whenever that happened it would always dishearten Lovino, causing him to become more standoffish, a pout probably suited him more than a grin anyways.

"Okay, and that's all we have time for today, I can't wait to see what you've managed in the past hour and a half." Feli said standing up; he had black charcoal stains on his hands, which he just wiped on his overalls. An hour and a half, is that how long it had been?

Much to Lovino's relief Antonio started putting his clothes back on, he could finally look at him without getting hot under the collar. Well sort of, he'd never get the image out of his head though, in fact he was thinking about it right at that moment. He had to say the guy was pretty muscular, not too much though, and he seemed to have flawless skin-

_'Wait, why am I thinking about this? Shut up Lovino.'_ Scolding himself internally before he cringed in embarrassment and disgust at his own thoughts. Not wanting to think of Antonio in any other way than the idiot which he was.

Feli was walking around the class, nodding at people's art and giving constructive criticism and praise where necessary.

"You two are brothers aren't you? You both look quite similar." Anri said under her breath, glancing at Feli from across the room.

"Yeah, he's my younger brother. A lot of people say we look similar, but I don't see it." Lovino followed Anris gaze to look at Feli. There was no way they looked alike, Lovino had olive skin, not the ivory like his brother who had much softer features, a "babyface" was the right word.

"Hnn, it must be nice to have a brother who can teach you art~"

"Not really." Lovino muttered bluntly, to which Anri didn't respond.

Much to the older italians irritation Feli approached Lovino and stared over his shoulder at his art pad, it felt so patronising.

"These aren't…Half-bad. What about the last few poses though?" Feli said passively before tilting his head to the side.

"I didn't have time." Was the grumbled response.

"You could have at least attempted though..."

"This is my first lesson, you should have made the time for poses longer than 10 minutes." Lovino folded his arms in defiance.

"Hmm, I think 10 minutes is reasonable, it challenges you, you just didn't take the challenge." Feli retorted meekly.

"Well, it wasn't my fault! It was the model, h-he kept moving around too soon!" Lovino started acting on the natural defensive as he pointed accusingly at the man who was still in the middle of putting his clothes on. Antonio just gave him an apologetic smile, opening and closing his mouth as if he were about to say something.

'Why is he smiling again? Is he mocking me? Look angry or defend yourself or SOMETHING. Don't just smile at me! I hate him, that fucking Spanish bastard!'

He could feel the anger building up from his core as people began to stare at Lovino, judge him. Probably wondering why he was kicking up such a fuss. It didn't help that Feli wouldn't quit lingering over his shoulder like some vulture. Nobody else got this treatment.

"But Antonio was perfectly fine-"

"Just shut up! What's with giving me the crappy feedback? What's "half-bad" supposed to mean huh? If you think they're shit then just say so!" unable to control the words that were falling out his mouth, Lovino began to shake, getting red in the face again. He felt like his brother was purposefully trying to humiliate him in front of everyone, and he was only making it worse for himself.

_'Stop talking to me Feliciano!'_

"Hey, I didn't say that. I think they're fine, just not you're best. You could have tried a little harder is all-" Feli spoke rapidly, doing the typical Italian thing of talking with his hands. Lovino knew he was trying to diffuse the situation, but it was too late.

"What if I did try my best? How do you know what's my best?"

"Lovino…Calm down…"

That was it, he hated it when people told him to calm down, he felt close to snapping, he had to leave. This room was just stifling, way too hot and way too pressurising.

"You know what? Fuck your shitty class little brother! Dio cane!" Lovino near shouted as he stood up so quickly the easel fell down with a **smack **that echoed through the room.

Anri gave a little gasp at the noise, as Feli flinched slightly and didn't say another word. As such was the Feli way of dealing with family disputes, start crying, or shy away from it, thus ending it.

* * *

More deathly silence hung in the air as everybody just stared, frozen. Only Lovino was the one moving, furiously stuffing his things into his satchel bag to swing it round his shoulder. On the outside he must have looked like a spoilt child having a man-tantrum, with hot tears pricking at the corners of his eyes threatening to spill. In truth he was heavily embarrassed, and felt sick to his stomach from all the looks he was getting.

He stomped out the room, all eyes following him, and made sure to slam the door shut behind him, so hard it threatened to come off its hinges.

Running away and never coming back here again seemed like a good option. His bad feeling from before had proved correct, this whole experience had been horrible from start to finish. Well, maybe not for meeting Anri, he liked Anri…But he couldn't show his face to her again. Now she wouldn't want to be friends, and he didn't blame her. This was probably why he didn't maintain many friendships after all.

"Shit, I need an espresso." Lovino said to himself, sighing heavily as he walked away from the biggest waste of his time ever. "So much for improving my art skills."

For some reason, he spent a large portion of his thoughts on Antonio, which was driving him insane. It was that stupid guys smile that had thrown him all off-balance, he was fine and breezy before.

Yes, it must have been that idiots fault. Besides, it's much easier to place the blame on somebody else, somebody you're never going to have to lay eyes on again after this thank god.

"Oi, Err…Mr. Vargas, Wait!"

'Mr Vargas' near enough just ignored the call for his attention, only the realisation he might have forgotten a piece of equipment made him stop in his tracks. With a twitch of his brow and a glower imprinted on his face, he turned around ever so slowly to face the stranger.

Unbelievable, it just had to be Antonio Carriedo.

* * *

**Belgium plus some other characters will be involved more in later drama oooh. Sorry if the pace is too slow(?) I just like to set the story up before I get into it.**


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